You Found Me
by poetrygrrl39
Summary: In the continuation of "Lost and Found," the relationship between Helen and Daniel Jackson is put to the test by events neither of them could have anticipated. Crossover with Stargate: SG1
1. Prologue

_A/N: I don't generally post stories before I complete them, but since folks have been clamoring for a continuation of "Lost and Found," I'm making an exception. Enjoy!_

_If you didn't read Lost and Found, this is going to make little to no sense and I highly recommend you read it first._

Prologue

Daniel Jackson lifted his duffle bag out of the trunk of the car, turning to shake the hand of the driver. His hand was dwarfed in the hand of the Big Guy, Helen Magnus' combination body guard, driver and butler.

"Good luck, Dr. Jackson," he rumbled.

"Thank you very much," Daniel answered. He looked back at Helen, who remained in the rear of the car, the window rolled down. Shouldering the bag, he walked over to the window, leaning over to catch her eye.

"See you soon?" he asked, smiling uncertainly.

"I do hope so," she answered. She reached a hand out the window. He took it in his, pressing his lips to her palm and running his thumb over the back of her hand. "I will miss you, Daniel."

Daniel smiled again, "I am going to miss you as well, Helen."

"Dr. Jackson! We're almost done loading!" came a shout from behind them. Daniel waved at the airman.

"The Air Force waits for no man," he said to Helen. He reluctantly released her hand. "I better go."

"Be safe, Daniel," Helen whispered.

"You too, Helen."

Readjusting the bag on his shoulder, he turned and began walking toward the waiting airman and the plane that would take him back to Colorado Springs. He heard a car door open behind him and turned to find Helen walking briskly toward him, just short of a run. His bag fell to the tarmac as she threw her arms around him and they kissed frantically, ignoring the wolf whistles from the airmen and the throat clearing of Helen's driver.

Daniel still couldn't believe that he had known this woman for only a week, since she had rescued him from the caves under Glastonbury and the creature she had captured there with the help of her team. Of course he had fallen in love with his wife in a day, so he supposed he shouldn't be surprised if he was falling hard for Helen so quickly.

They pulled back from each other when oxygen became an issue, leaning against each other with their foreheads pressed together.

"Helen, I don't want to scare the hell out of you, but I think I'm falling in love with you," Daniel whispered.

Helen laughed softly, the sound vibrating through the two of them. "I'm so glad to hear you say that, Daniel, because I feel the same way."

"Dr. Jackson, I'm sorry, but we really have to go," the airman said apologetically.

"I don't want to leave," Daniel whispered, ignoring the intrusion.

"I don't want you to go, but we both have responsibilities, people counting on us," Helen said.

"Damn reality," Daniel growled, making Helen giggle.

"Dr. Jackson?"

"All right, airman, I'm coming." He kissed Helen lightly on the lips, then on the forehead. "I'll call you tonight when I get back to my place."

"I'll be waiting."

Daniel scooped up his bag again and turned to follow the airman to the plane, glancing briefly over his shoulder but forcing himself to continue moving forward. Helen waved at him, clearly forcing a smile.

"Soon," he mouthed to her and she nodded.


	2. Chapter 1

_A/N: Don't worry, this chapter takes place at Stargate Command, in "Daniel's world," but it's just a temporary layover. We will be back in the Sanctuary-verse lickety-split._

Chapter 1

Daniel Jackson sat slumped over an artifact on his desk, scowling at it in annoyance. It had been brought back from a routine expedition by SG-3, who had pried it off of a temple door, and it was either extremely important directions of how to arm a weapon, or a "you are here" sign. After three days of staring at it attempting to translate the writing on its surface, Daniel was leaning strongly toward it being a completely useless piece of junk.

He glanced at the clock. 7:30. Morning or night? he wondered, then remembered that the digital gave military time, so it must be a.m. He had been up all night staring at this damn hunk of rock.

He sighed, leaning back in his chair and pulling open a drawer to look at Helen Magnus' smiling face staring up at him. He kept the picture in a drawer, rather than out on his desk as he would have preferred, to avoid the awkward questions that were sure to arise when someone noticed her remarkable resemblance to Sam Carter. Somehow, when met in person, animated and alive, the resemblance seemed to fade. But in a picture, it was glaringly obvious. The two women moved differently and had different outlooks on life, but clearly those differences were not captured by a camera.

He remembered their last meeting, when he had promised he would see her soon.

"Soon is obviously a relative term," Daniel muttered to himself. Three months. Three months had passed since he had last seen Helen in person. Three months of late night telephone calls, emails, and two sessions of phone sex that both embarrassed Daniel and impressed him. Helen certainly had a way with words. He flushed just thinking about it.

In those three months, his time had not been his own, and Helen had her own challenges. Atlantis had settled into the Pacific off of San Francisco, which gave him unprecedented access to the secrets of the city, but also meant hours of meetings with Woolsey and his ilk about whether the city should stay or be sent back to the Pegasus Galaxy, diplomatic sessions with other world governments smoothing ruffled feathers and, his personal favorite, endless conversations about the Wraith and whether or not they could find Earth again. Since that question couldn't really be answered without going to Pegasus and beating it out of a Wraith, meaning that the conversation kept going in annoying circles, Daniel found those meetings to be the worst of all.

Not to mention that Rodney McKay was back within shouting distance rather than light years away, something Daniel could have done without.

While all this was going on, Ashley had been kidnapped, or brainwashed, or both (Helen's emails were maddeningly vague) and Ashley's father, Helen's first love, had turned up and joined the good guys in trying to save Ashley and take down a shadowy organization that made the NID and the Trust look like romper room, according to Helen.

All had apparently ended well, as far as Daniel could tell from subsequent emails and phone calls, but John was still hanging around. Given that Daniel had spent only a week with Helen, declared his maybe love for her as he was leaving and hadn't seen her for three months, he didn't hold out much hope that he was going to keep hold of her heart with her former, and now reformed, lover back in her life. Especially since John was living under Helen's roof and Daniel was hundreds of miles away. He hadn't heard from Helen in a week and wasn't surprised. He assumed he had been forgotten in the face of her returning lover.

Daniel looked again at Helen's smiling face and slammed the drawer shut.

"Whoa, Jackson, did your desk tick you off that much?" asked a voice from his doorway.

Daniel looked over his shoulder to find Cameron Mitchell, commanding officer of SG-1, lounging against the doorframe, arms crossed.

"I'm afraid the desk was an innocent bystander," Daniel responded, swiveling his chair to face Cam. "The artifact is the problem."

Cam shrugged. "Send it off to Area 51 then, you've got bigger fish to fry."

"I do?"

"You sure do, buddy. General Landry sent me to find you. He got a call from a Dr. William Zimmerman, looking for you. Apparently someone you met on leave, you know, when you went on your accidental spelunking trip? She's in trouble."

Daniel blew past Cam in the doorway so fast that the officer had to grab at the doorframe to keep from tumbling over. Cameron found himself staring at Daniel's retreating back as the archeologist sprinted down the hallway like the Wraith were after him.

"Damn, Jackson, what the hell?" Cam muttered, straitening his BDU jacket and following Jackson at a more sedate pace.

He didn't see Daniel at the elevators and assumed, correctly, that the frantic man had taken the stairs down to the control room level. When Mitchell caught up with him, Daniel was leaning over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath as General Landry looked at him in mild amusement.

Mitchell leaned over, "You could have come with me in the elevator, Jackson, you would have gotten here still breathing."

Daniel shot Cam a look that made the younger man straighten up and retreat several feet. He had NEVER seen Daniel look that pissed.

"General, what's going on?" Daniel asked, standing up and pinning his glare on the Stargate's commanding officer.

"At 0746, we received a call routed through the NORAD base for you, from a Dr. William Zimmerman. He informed the communications officer that he knew you were stationed in Colorado Springs as a civilian consultant and that it was urgent he reach you, that a…." the General paused, looking at a note in his hand, "Here it is, a Dr. Helen Magnus was in trouble. At that point the call was relayed to my office. Dr. Zimmerman told me, and I quote, 'Tell Daniel that John took her,' there was a commotion in the background, and then he hung up."

Mitchell had been watching Daniel with unconcealed interest during Landry's recitation and moved to catch the archeologist under the elbow when the man staggered. He had never seen a man go from annoyed and concerned to outright terrified so quickly.

"General, I need to take some leave, now," Daniel said, shaking off Mitchell's hand.

"Dr. Jackson, what the hell is going on?"

Daniel snatched off his glasses, running his fingers through his hair. Mitchell kept an eye on him, wondering what was going on with his friend. This was hardly typical behavior for him. He had rarely seen Daniel Jackson rattled, let alone completely freaked out.

"When I went missing, on leave, when I was in Glastonbury, Dr. Magnus and her team were the ones who rescued me," Daniel said, flopping down in a chair and shoving his hands in the pockets of his BDUs. "She works in genetics."

Cam was looking at Daniel avidly. The archeologist had been very closed mouth about where he had been and who he had been with when he returned from his vacation. The officer knew that Daniel had gone missing, been found and had then spent a week in the company of some mysterious woman he had met, but the details of that week he had kept to himself.

"That's all very interesting, Dr. Jackson, I'm sure," General Landry said. He sounded exasperated with as well as worried for the archeologist. "It doesn't explain why Dr. Zimmerman called here if this Dr. Magnus is missing. Why not just call the police?"

Daniel looked at the general, apparently trying to decide how much or what to tell his commanding officer, then glanced at Mitchell, who managed to school his face from curiosity to concern a second before Jackson's gaze rested on his face.

"John is Helen's former lover and the father of her child," Daniel finally said, sounding defeated. "He is extremely dangerous."

"Again, Dr. Jackson, why you?"

Daniel sighed. "I'm not sure what Will is expecting me to do, but John has some…unique abilities that will make it impossible for the police to find them. Helen and I formed a relationship during the time I was with her at The Sanctuary. Will obviously believes that there is something I can do to help, and he quite rightly believes that I would be very…concerned about Helen."

"I see," the general said, though it was clear that he was still more than a bit confused. "Let me see if I can clarify this. Dr. Magnus, who works in genetics, was in the same cave system in Glastonbury as you with her 'team,' they rescued you, you spent time with her at someplace called 'The Sanctuary,' at which time you became lovers. Now, three months later, her former lover has turned up and kidnapped her and a member of her team is calling you for help?"

"I think that about sums it up, yes," Daniel said.

"Dr. Jackson, I repeat my statement from earlier, what the HELL is going on?"

Daniel sighed again, turning to Sergeant Walter Harriman, who had been sitting at the control panel pretending not to be listening to the extremely interesting conversation that had been going on behind him.

"Walter, can you pull up information on The Sanctuary from the military's internal databases?"

Walter looked to the general for permission, received a nod, and began typing on his keyboard quickly.

"It appears that The Sanctuary is an organization that is not part of the government, but is sanctioned by us," Harriman said. "And by international governments as well. The head of the organization is Dr. Helen Magnus, no picture or further information on her available."

"Mission of the organization?" Landry asked, leaning over Walter's shoulder to look at the screen.

"Homeworld Security."

Mitchell joined the general, leaning over Walter's other shoulder. "Homeworld Security? It says Homeworld, not Homeland?"

"That's correct, Sir."

"Daniel, what the hell did you get yourself into THIS time?" Cam asked, turning around to face his friend.

"General, Cam, I understand your concerns, but please believe me when I say that there is nothing else you need to know at this point," Daniel said. "I lost Sha're because she was taken from me by a madman. I have no intention of losing another woman I love the same way."

Landry and Mitchell looked at him in silence.

"Permission for one week's leave granted, Dr. Jackson. Take Mitchell with you; I don't want to listen to him whine about being on stand-down while you are gone."

"While I appreciate the help, General, I don't think…."

"It's not an offer, Dr. Jackson, is a requirement."

Daniel turned to Cam, who was bouncing on his heels in the anticipation of action.

"Okay, then, thanks for the help, I guess," Daniel said. "Cam, pack yourself some civies and let's go."

Sgt. Harriman looked up from his keyboard. "Dr. Jackson, there's a military transport headed that way that leaves in an hour."

"Walter, you are a godsend, thanks," Daniel said. He walked out of the control room, Cam close behind him and thought, _hang in there, Helen, I'm on my way._


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_Earlier that day…_

Helen Magnus was tired. Tired and frustrated. She rubbed at her gritty eyes, trying to focus on the screen of the laptop in front of her. The clock at the lower corner blinked with an ungodly late, or was it early?, hour.

She and her team had been faced with identical triplet girls, 15, who had figured out that they could not only impersonate each other, but could impersonate other people, assuming their appearance and mannerisms with just a touch. Changelings, Henry had called them, apparently some kind of Star Trek reference, and the name had stuck. They were hardly inherently dangerous, but they had the potential to be without some guidance. Certainly their home life was not settled; transient father, uninvolved mother.

Helen and Will had spent the last few days talking to the Changelings, trying to convince them that the power they had should be used carefully, not for their entertainment. She wasn't sure it had stuck, but Ashley hadn't wanted to listen to her when she was 15 either. Hopefully the words of the young, attractive Dr. Zimmerman had gotten through.

"Magnus, can I get you some tea?" asked a voice from the corner. Helen's head shot up. She had forgotten that Will was on the couch, flipping through a book, trying to find a previous reference to shapeshifting and assumed identities.

"You should be in bed, Will," she said. Her voice was raspy and she cleared her throat.

"As should you, Magnus, but I don't see you heading for your bedroom either," he responded, grinning.

"Too true. I just think that if we could figure out a way to inhibit the girls' abilities, until they get a bit older, we could…"

She stopped when Will held up a hand, still smiling. He waved an empty coffee cup at her, stood up and stretched. "If we are going to go over this theory again, I need more coffee, and you need some tea. Give me five minutes to boil some water and I'll be back."

Helen smiled in response. "Fine, fine, go get your caffeine fix."

"Our caffeine fix, Magnus. You'll never admit it, but you need it as much as I do. Maybe more. You've got several decades over me, if you recall."

He was out the door laughing before Helen could respond. She shook her head, smiling.

"Cheeky!"

As he left the room, she decided to take a break from reading the case file to write a short email to Daniel Jackson. She couldn't believe it had been so long since she had seen him.

_Dear Daniel,_

_I was so glad to hear from you yesterday that your "mission" had gone well. It certainly was a long week between emails. I was also very glad to hear that you came back from this "mission" uninjured._

_Things have settled a bit since Ashley returned home, and I was thinking that perhaps I could finally take the time away to come visit you in Colorado Springs. I miss you a great deal and am very much anticipating our time together! Well, when I say things are "settled," they are settled with the exception of…._

"Helen, you really must get some rest," came the urbane voice of John Druitt from her office doorway.

"Think of the devil and he shall appear," she muttered under her breath, saving the partially written email and closing it. She didn't look up, but she felt her shoulders instantly become tight at his intrusion into her office. While she was overwhelmingly grateful for his assistance in saving Ashley, his presence in The Sanctuary had become a perpetual distraction.

"I'm fine, John, thank you for your concern," she said shortly.

"You're not fine, darling, you're exhausted," John said. She had once compared his voice to being wrapped in velvet. It was still smooth and seductive, but the shiver it sent through her was not of desire, not any longer. It was the faintest tremor of fear.

"John, I wish you would accede to my request and stop calling me 'darling,' or any other pet names," Helen said, still not looking up from the screen, even though she had read what was on it at least a dozen times.

"Peace, Helen, please," John said. She heard the door close and his footsteps as he walked across the room toward her. Now she lifted her eyes from the screen. It was a very bad idea to let John roam without keeping a close eye on him.

She noticed he was wearing his sweeping leather coat, and that he was smiling the disturbing smile that she recognized from his days as a hunter of prostitutes in London, his days as Jack the Ripper.

"What do you want, John?" she asked. She rose from her chair, keeping the desk between her body and his. He hadn't shown any dangerous tendencies since coming to The Sanctuary, but something about his manner now scared her.

"My dearest Helen, I want what I have always wanted. I want you."

Helen curled her fingers under the edge of her desk, where she kept a tranquilizer pistol concealed.

"John, you can't have me, it's quite simple. Even if I was not involved with another man, I stopped loving you a long time ago, around the same time you went mad and became a killer. I have tolerated you here because you helped us to save Ashley, but I certainly have no plans to allow you back into my life as anything other than what you are right now: a reluctantly accepted member of my team."

Her former lover laughed loudly, driving her to back further away from him, the small, single-shot pistol now hidden in her hand. "Helen, you have no idea, no idea at all, who you are dealing with. You will always love me, as I will always love you. Your dalliance with your young archeologist is over. I forgive you for becoming entangled with him; you didn't know I would be coming back for you."

"Forgive me? For God's sake, John, you're madder than I thought. I don't want or need your forgiveness."

John strode toward her, his face enraged, the scar livid against his pale face. As his hand, charged with energy, reached for her, she raised the tranq pistol and fired.

The door of the room slammed open and Will stood there staring in shock, tea tray in his hands.

"Helen!" he yelled, dropping the tray to the ground in a symphony of shattering china, leaping over a couch to try and get to her.

John's hand closed around Helen's even as the tranquilizer dart embedded itself into the flesh of his arm. She screamed involuntarily as John's power boiled through her, dragging her with him, Will and her office vanishing before her eyes in a swirl of red-orange energy.

_God help me_, she thought, when John collapsed unconscious against her. _God help me. _


	4. Chapter 3

Cameron Mitchell was staring out the window of the plane, watching the countryside skim past through a thin layer of clouds.

"I hate it when someone else is flying," he muttered to Daniel, slumped into the seat next to him.

Jackson grunted, surprising Cam. It was the most response he had gotten from Daniel since they had left Stargate Command.

Cam twisted in his seat, facing Daniel. They only had another hour in the air; he needed to know exactly what they were walking into.

"All right, Jackson, time to spill," he said. "I've let you sulk, now you gotta talk."

"Look, Cam, I'll just leave you at the base…."

Mitchell cut him off with a hoot of laughter. "You have got to be kidding. General Landry would skin me and nail my hide to the barn. No way, Daniel, you are stuck with me."

Jackson nodded thoughtfully; he knew Cameron was right.

"Okay, Cam, I'm going to tell you some things that were told to me in confidence. I have to ask you to promise me that you won't reveal any of this, not even to the General, or Sam."

Cameron looked at his teammate and nodded reluctantly. "You know, though, that I am an officer in the United States Air Force. If my superior officer orders me to tell him, I can't refuse…"

"I understand that, and I certainly don't expect you to get court martialed for someone else's secret. But I highly doubt the general is going to ask you a direct question about it."

"Fair enough."

Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Helen hadn't actually told him not to tell anyone about her or the Sanctuary, but it still felt like a betrayal to be telling someone else her story without her permission. Especially since she still knew nothing about what he really did for the Air Force.

"Helen Magnus is the leader of an organization known as the Sanctuary. There are multiple Sanctuarys around the world. We are heading for the original right now. Helen and her team deal with….unusual people, people who have special abilities."

"Define 'special abilities,'" Cam said.

Daniel sighed. "Some of these people can, for example, read other people's thoughts. Others can…compress themselves to fit through small spaces. John Druitt, the man who took Helen, can teleport. I assume that's how he kidnapped Helen."

Cameron stared at Daniel, waiting for the punchline. His jaw dropped when he realized there wasn't one.

"You're serious."

"Cam, you travel through a big stone ring to other planets. One of your best friends is an alien. Why is this hard to believe?"

Cam rubbed his close cropped hair. "When you put it that way, I guess it's not."

He sat silent for a moment, staring at the seat in front of him. "I can see why you think the cops might have a hard time finding a guy who can teleport. Tell me about Dr. Magnus' team. What kind of support are we looking at?"

Daniel hesitated, then dug into his bag, pulling out a photo. He kept his fingers firmly over the edge, not wanting to reveal Helen until he had to. From the look Cam shot him, he noticed this diversionary tactic, but didn't remark on it, looking attentively at the picture as Daniel pointed to the people he was describing.

"Dr. Will Zimmerman, the man who called me. He's a criminal profiler. Smart, tough, not necessarily good in a physical fight."

"Looks like a geek," Cam remarked, holding up his hands when Daniel glared at him. "Hey, nothing against it, some of my best friends are geeks." He nudged Daniel, who blew out his breath and shook his head.

"Henry Foss, tech and security. I didn't talk with him much, but I gather he may have some kind of special abilities that could help us."

"Special as in the people with special abilities that your doctor friend helps, or special like 'Aw, isn't he special,'" Cameron asked.

"Special like the first."

"Cool. Now, who is THAT?" Cameron pointed at Ashley.

"Ashley Magnus, Helen's daughter. She probably knows more about guns and guerilla tactics than you."

"Hang on, Helen's DAUGHTER? What, was she a teenage mother? Or are you seeing an older lady, Jackson?"

"You have no idea, Cam," Daniel muttered under his breath. He finally moved his fingers, uncovering the image of Helen. Cam stared, then snatched the photo from Daniel's hand.

"Um, Daniel…?"

"Yes Cam."

"That's Sam…in a black wig…but it's Sam Carter."

"Cameron, believe me, it's not Sam. I know she looks like Sam, but Helen and Sam are definitely two very different people."

Cam peered at the photo again, then looked at Daniel in disbelief. He leaned back in the seat and started laughing while Daniel stared at him.

"Holy shit, Jackson, do Sam and O'Neill know you're dating her clone?"

"It's more likely that Sam is Helen's clone, actually," Daniel muttered, unheard by his chortling colleague. Daniel stopped, caught in a thought. That was an explanation for the remarkable resemblance between the two women that he had never considered. After a second, he shoved it to the back of his brain to consider another time. He had to get Helen back safely, everything else was secondary.

He waited impatiently for Cam to get his laughter under control, snatching the photo from his hand and tucking it away.

"All right, Daniel, if your friend Helen has the crack team and they have worldwide resources, why are they calling you for help?"

Daniel shook his head. "I really don't know Cam, but I don't think Will called to let me know JUST to let me know. He would have known I'd be there as soon as I could. There must be something he feels I can do."

Mitchell shrugged his shoulders as the captain announced they were beginning their descent.

"Well, I guess we're gonna find out pretty damn soon," he said.

_A/N: Okay, I know that was a lot of exposition. Action in the next chapters, I promise._


	5. Chapter 4

_A/N: On with the angst! Thanks for all the great reviews, guys, they really keep me going._

Chapter 4

Helen Magnus could not remember ever being angrier than she was right now. There was the time she had been forbidden access to Oxford because of her gender. And the time Ashley, after a viewing of ET, tried to liberate the frogs from the science lab by bringing them home in her backpack.

But really even those two rages faded in the face of the slow burn she was feeling now.

She had materialized in a small room with her wrist still in the death grip of an unconscious John Druitt. His grip was crushing the small bones of her wrist together, and she struggled frantically to free herself.

Once she was finally loose, she backed cautiously away from her kidnapper, searching the room. The 20' x 30' room appeared to have been chiseled out of stone. She ran her hands down the walls.

"Sandstone," she murmured to herself. It was cool and faintly damp to the touch, and Helen decided she was probably underground, most likely a long ways underground.

The room was lit by dimly glowing electric lights in the corners, giving the tan stone an eerie cast. It was furnished with a table with two chairs, a long reclining divan and, ominously in Helen's opinion, a large four-poster bed. One long wall was covered in curtains. Given that there were no visible exits, Helen yanked open the first curtain praying that there was a door behind it.

Her prayer was not answered. The first three curtains covered shelves carved into the walls, stocked with cans and jars of food and bottled water. The fourth curtain hid a small bathroom with a claw foot tub, toilet and sink, each with a large tank suspended above it.

Helen twitched the curtains closed in frustration, then looked more closely at the blue and white printed damask. The pattern matched the fabrics that had decorated Helen's room when she grew up.

The entire room was more than a little disturbing.

Helen heard a groan behind her and turned to see that John was waking up.

"Damnit," she muttered. She strode across the room and efficiently kicked him in the jaw with her high-heeled black boot, knocking him back out. Lacking a rope, she yanked down one of the shelving curtains and ripped it into strips, quickly braiding them into stronger, thicker ropes.

Grunting with the effort, she hauled the unconscious man into one of the chairs and tied him to it. She knew it wouldn't stop him from teleporting away and leaving her there, wherever it was. But if he was tied up, she would at least have some kind of warning before he could attack her.

She had no doubt that if John was free, he would be forcing himself on her before she could draw a breath to protest. His claims back in Sanctuary made it clear that he considered her to belong to him. He obviously had turned the corner from mad to completely deranged.

She paced back and forth in the small space, running her hands along each wall, trying to find a door, finally emptying the contents of the shelves onto the floor, hoping a door was hidden there. Nothing.

She had stripped off her suit coat in her search and was standing in her blue sleeveless shirt and black skirt staring at the stopcock above the tub wondering how much water it held and where it was coming from when she heard John yell her name from behind her, followed by the sound of the chair crashing over as he struggled to free himself.

Helen spun on her heel in time to see him vanish and materialize in front of her, lunging for her bare arms. She dodged him, moving out of the doorway of the bathroom to give herself more room to maneuver, but his nails scored down her shoulders as he attacked. She cried out, seizing a can from one of the shelves and flinging it at him. It hit the tank above the sink with a watery bang.

"Helen, my love, you must stop this," he murmured softly to her in his powerful voice, advancing with his arms outstretched. "I've done all this for you, my dearest. A place where we can be alone, just the two of us, just like the old days. We belong together, you know that."

Helen shook her head in disbelief, circling the table, trying to keep something between them.

Suddenly, she swooped down and snatched up the fallen chair, makeshift ropes still attached, and whipped it at him. Caught off guard, John stumbled when it hit his arm, then yelled when Helen slammed him back against the wall. She tried to smash his head into the rough stone hard enough to knock him out, but he raised his shoulder to take much of the brunt of the body slam.

He seized her wrists, the right one still painful from his earlier grip, and pulled her body against his. She was revolted to feel his hardness against her abdomen. He rubbed himself against her as he squeezed her wrists.

"Don't you remember how good it was, my love? Even when you gave me your virginity, I made sure it was good, didn't I?" He leaned down to try and kiss her and she twisted her head away, biting her lip to keep from crying out as he nuzzled the taut cords of her neck, licking down to her collarbone as he crushed her wrists in his hands. "It was in a bed very like that one, don't you remember? I'll make it good for you again."

As he spoke, he was pushing her backward toward the bed, using his body weight, until the carved wooden footboard pressed into the back of her thighs. He pressed himself against her, groaning into her throat as he sucked on the pulse point.

Helen considered giving up. He probably wouldn't hurt her too badly if she just let him do what he wanted.

As she turned her head and pulled back to look into his cold, dead blue eyes, however, she remembered the madness in those eyes as he killed those poor girls in London. And she remembered Daniel's warm blue eyes as he hovered above her while they made love, and she knew she couldn't give in to this madman.

She relaxed in his grip, allowing him to move his mouth toward hers, letting her lips part with a gasp, as if she was acquiescing to his desires. As he approached her mouth, she suddenly reared back and head butted him, then sidestepped as he released her in shock, and shoved him hard to land face down on the bed.

He was only stunned when she leapt on top of him, using her weight to hold him down as she wrapped her forearms around his throat, strangling him.

Straddling him, her upper body pressed against his back, she squeezed his throat with all her might. Mouth next to his ear, she whispered.

"I don't belong to you, John," she hissed as he struggled, trying to buck her off. His struggles grew weaker and Helen prayed that this particular part of the nightmare was almost over. "You have never understood, John Druitt, that I belong to no one except myself."

He stopped moving, but she kept her arms locked around his throat for a few more minutes, until she was sure. Sure that her first lover, the father of her child, Jack the Ripper and the man who would possess her by force, was dead. Dead by her own hand.

And sure that she was now trapped in a room with no exits with his corpse.


	6. Chapter 5

_A/N: I'm sorry for the long delay in posting this chapter. The muse and I have not been on speaking terms when it comes to this story. But I finally bribed her with enough dark chocolate and fancy coffee that she agreed to help._

_And so…on with the show…_

Daniel and Cam had been met at the small military airport by a long black car, and Will Zimmerman. The younger man looked as if he hadn't slept in days. His clothes and hair were both rumpled and even his glasses sat askew on his face.

"Daniel, thank god you're here," he said, grabbing the archeologist's hand in a surprisingly strong grip.

"I came as quickly as I could, Will. Doctor Will Zimmerman, this is Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell of the United States Air Force. He leads my team at Cheyenne Mountain."

Will nodded at Cam briefly. If he was surprised that Daniel had brought someone along, he didn't show it. Although, Daniel mused, maybe the profiler was too distraught to be surprised by anything.

"Pleased to meet you, Doc," Cam said. "I hope I can be of assistance."

Daniel was surprised to see Will's eyes momentarily tear up. He turned away from Daniel and Cam, leading the way toward the car. They loaded their gear into the trunk and climbed into the back with Will.

The driver's compartment was cut off from the passenger area by a smoked glass divider, but Daniel had a pretty good idea who was sitting up there.

"All right, Will, tell me what happened?" Daniel said. He tried to keep his voice calm, but he knew the tension bled through. Will glanced at Cam. "I told Cam what he needs to know in order to be helpful, Will, so it's safe to talk in front of him."

Cam made a face. He resisted the desire to make a smart remark, knowing that it wouldn't go over well in the current atmosphere.

"Helen told you that Druitt has been hanging around Sanctuary since he helped find the Source blood and defeat The Cabal?"

"Yes, she mentioned it."

Cam wondered what the hell Source blood was, and what a cabal was, but kept quiet. He had a feeling that if he distracted Dr. Zimmerman, the man might fall apart.

"We, all of us, were worried about Druitt. He has a…violent history. Very violent. Ashley, Henry and I decided that Helen shouldn't be left alone. The Big Guy stood guard outside her room at night and Henry doubled up the disrupter fields that prevented Druitt from using his teleporting ability."

Will paused, took a deep breath. "Last night, well, early this morning, actually, Helen and I were working in her study on a new case. I went to get coffee – and tea for her. When I got back, John was teleporting her away." He put his face in his hands. "I shouldn't have left her."

Daniel put his hand on Will's shoulder. "You couldn't have been gone more than a few minutes, Will, it's not your fault."

Cam shook his head. Poor guy was obviously piling the guilt on himself. "Hang on, what about the whatchamacallums, disrupter fields? I thought they were supposed to stop him?"

Will lifted his head up, swiped impatiently at his wet eyes, and leaned his head back against the seat. "Apparently Druitt figured out that there was a 30 second gap in the field while it cycled. He took her in that time."

"Damn. Crazy and smart, just what we need," Cam said. "So, not to be rude, Doc, but why did you call Daniel here? I mean, I know he and Helen were doing the horiz…" he looked at Daniel, who was glaring at him, and quickly changed words, "Involved, but what were you expecting him to do?"

"I wasn't sure you would come, Daniel, to be honest. But we found some books in Druitt's room, in a language none of us can read, and we thought maybe you could translate them. It might give us a clue as to where he has taken Helen."

Daniel nodded slowly. "There aren't many Earth languages I can't muddle through," he said thoughtfully.

"Earth languages?" Will repeated. "What do you mean Earth languages?"

Daniel and Cam looked at each other in despair. "It's just an expression, Will, no big," Cam said quickly. Daniel nodded frantically.

Will glared from one to the other, eyes narrowed. "I can tell you're lying, you know."

Cam looked confused, and Daniel sighed. "I know you can, Will, and I'd like to explain everything, but right now, Helen is the priority."

Eyes still narrowed, the younger man glared at him. "As long as you can help Helen, I guess it doesn't really matter to me, but I think you are going to owe her an explanation eventually."

The rest of the ride to the Sanctuary took place in silence.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Upon arriving at the Sanctuary, once Cam finished gawking at the huge, gothic complex, the two SG-1 members separated. Cam was met at the doors by Ashley, who took him off to view the weapons room (General Landry's generosity with sending the two men had not extended to supplying them with firearms). Daniel and Will went straight to Druitt's room.

"We left everything the way it was, in case it was significant," Will said. He leaned in the doorway while Daniel looked around the room. He focused on the two books laying open on the desk. He hovered over the books, not touching them.

"Humph, Arabic, Ancient Arabic," he muttered. He sat down at the chair, pulling a small notebook and pencil out of the pocket of his leather jacket, and began scribbling, mumbling to himself under his breath.

Will watched him for a while, then wandered off to see what Ashley had gotten up to with Jackson's friend.

When the team had first met Daniel in the caverns under Glastonbury, Will had developed an instant dislike for the archeologist. He knew the reason why. He was jealous. His schoolboy crush on Helen had come crashing down around him almost instantly upon Helen and Daniel setting eyes on each other.

The longer he knew Daniel and the more time he and Helen spent together, the clearer it became that one, Daniel was actually a nice guy and two, that he made Helen happy. In the end, it seemed that Helen's happiness was the most important thing.

Will walked into the weapons room quietly. Ashley was sitting on a crate off to the right, an amused look on her face, while Mitchell stood in the middle of the room openly gawking at the array of guns, swords, knifes and other weapons.

"Is that a flamethrower?" he asked Ashley.

"Yep. Lots of lower level abnormals don't like fire. And sometimes, you gotta light stuff up to clear out a nest or something. There was this one time, like years ago, we were hunting a folding man, and we stumbled across a bunch of giant spider-type things. We didn't have the thrower with us, so I ended up making a Molotov out of a half empty vodka bottle I bought off a homeless guy and my bra. Damn things were tough, so we had blazing giant spiders the size of my head running around the room."

Mitchell was staring at Ashley, clearly dumbstruck. "How old were you then?"

"Geez, I dunno, like 14 or 15? That's why I could use the bra. It was still a cotton training one. The ones I wear now, too much lace and shit. Doesn't burn as good."

Will choked in the doorway, trying not to laugh. Ashley looked over her shoulder at him and gave him the merest wink.

Henry wandered out from behind a set of shelves, carrying a P-90 and several clips of ammunition. "This should be what you are used to, Colonel Mitchell," he said, handing them to the officer, who was still starting at Ashley.

Cam shook himself out of his stupor and checked the weapon thoroughly.

"Looks good, Henry, thanks. You got any armor piercing shells?" he asked Ashley. The young woman became all business, prying open a crate and digging out more clips, tossing them to Mitchell. "Hope we don't need 'em, but there's no such thing as overprepared."

"Yeah, my mom says that too," Ashley said with a sigh. Henry came over and put his hand on her shoulder.

"We're gonna get her back, Ash, I swear we are," he said. Ashley turned into him, letting him hug her as Will and Cam shuffled their feet awkwardly.

"Come on, crew, let's get something to eat," Henry said. He gestured them out into the hall and trailed them down to the kitchen.

Once Mitchell had recovered from his first meeting with the Big Guy, they snacked on the items he had put out. Cam couldn't help but notice that the Sanctuary crew was not eating much. They were too upset, he figured, as he made his second sandwich.

"Will?" they all turned toward Daniel's voice as the archeologist charged into the room shaking his notebook and looking agitated.

"I translated the pages. It's an ancient dialect of Arabic. Someone copied wall writings, essentially graffiti, and compiled them into the books. The section that Druitt was apparently reading referred to underground chambers carved into stone beneath the desert for storage and hiding from enemies. I would guess that Druitt found some of these chambers and that's where he took Helen."

"Under the desert where, Jackson," Cam asked. Daniel flinched, and Cam knew he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Afghanistan. Under the deserts of Afghanistan."

Nope, didn't like the answer at all.

"Well that would figure," Will said bitterly. "That's one of the countries that won't let us cross into their borders. We're going to have to go in covertly, and avoid not only local militia, wandering bandits and the remains of the Taliban, but international troops as well."

"This is great," Ashley added. "Bastard."

"Hang on, hang on, you've got two people here who may be able to make this a lot easier," Cam said. He grabbed Jackson by the arm and dragged him into the hallway, where the archeologist promptly shook him off.

"You could have just asked me to step out of the room, you know," he snarked at the pilot.

"Yeah, whatever. Look, did you bring your communications relay with you? The Asgard one?"

"After I got 'lost' Jack insisted I not leave base without it, you know that. It's in my bag, why?"

"Cuz maybe, just maybe, we can get a lift to Afghanistan from an old friend, and no one will ever know we were there."

Daniel stared at Cam with his mouth hanging open, instantly connecting the dots. "I don't think anyone is going to approve of us using the Hammond on a rescue mission for non-military personnel."

"Jackson, Jackson, Jackson. It's all in how you ask."

Daniel followed Cam to the front entranceway, where they had left their bags, and dug out the small handheld communicator Sam had given him. He shoved it at Mitchell.

"You ask."

"Coward."

Mitchell fired up the communicator. "Colonel Mitchell to the General George Hammond. Please come in Hammond."

There was a pause, then a tinny voice emitted from the device. "This is the General George Hammond, Colonel. Please verify your codes."

Mitchell quickly rattled off a string of letters and numbers.

"Thank you, sir, how many I assist you?"

"I'd like to speak to Colonel Carter, please, if she can spare a moment."

"One moment, Colonel Mitchell, I'll see if she's available."

During the silence, Daniel stared at the ceiling and fidgeted, and Cameron stared at the floor and fidgeted. Neither of them saw Will, standing out of sight around the corner, watching them closely.

"Cam? What's up?"

"Sam Carter, am I glad to hear your voice," Cam said. "Um…is this a private confab?"

"Hang on, it can be." There was clicking, then Sam's voice came back. "Alright, what's the sitrep?"

"Well, Sam, it's like this. The head of an international organization that has full governmental support has been kidnapped. We have a probable location for her, but it's in Afghanistan. I have a team that could go in and extract her, made up mainly of members of her organization, but they don't have jurisdiction to cross the border, and I don't have time to go through the hoops it would take to get the permissions I would need to go in there, not to mention the flight time and time on the ground."

"Okay…so what do you want me to…no way, Cam! You can't possibly expect me to drop your team into Afghanistan without some kind of authorization." Daniel cringed. Sam's ticked off voice was a force to be reckoned with.

"No, no, Sam, of course not!" Cam was the very picture of wounded innocence, until he rolled his eyes at Daniel. "I want you to explain the situation to General O'Neill and get his authorization, then do the rest of it."

There was a long silence. Will looked from one man to the other, wondering who they were talking to and why this woman could help.

"Who the hell is this woman? Why are you involved?" Sam asked.

"Sam, its Daniel. Remember when you looked up the Sanctuary and Helen Magnus for me?"

"Oh."

"Yeah. Everything Cam says is true. Plus…look Sam, I love her. I love her and some crazed madman is holding her captive. I can't go through this again. I need your help."

Both men heard Sam sigh on the other end of the communicator.

"Let me get in touch with the General. I'll let you know ASAP. Hammond out."

Cam and Daniel looked at each other. "And now we wait?" Daniel asked.

"Yep. And now we wait."


	7. Chapter 6

Helen finished her third set of lunges and headed to the food shelves to pick out her breakfast. Over the past weeks she had been there (2 weeks, 3 days, she believed), she had developed a kind of routine. Exercise, food. Mental exercises, more food. Second set of physical exercises, food again. Brief sponging off of her body, rinsing of her battered clothing, bed.

As she looked at the shelves, she added number 283 to her mental to-do list assuming she ever got out of this hole and back to The Sanctuary. (283. Strike all canned fruits and canned meat like substances from the Sanctuary grocery list. The fact that neither had ever appeared in the Sanctuary's kitchen didn't really matter. As far as Helen was concerned, she never wanted to see any of it again.)

The shelves were getting low, she noticed again. As a result, she chose only a can of peaches for her breakfast. The room was dim; the result of her unscrewing some of the light bulbs in the hope that she would be able to keep light longer. Being trapped in this room in complete darkness was something she couldn't even bear to think about.

Despite knowing logically that she was eventually going to die down here, already buried in the earth with the rotting corpse of her former lover, some part of her apparently refused to give up and accept that fact. She ate, she drank, she conserved, she exercised, she slept.

"Human resilience is an amazing thing," she said aloud. She made an effort not to talk to herself, but she still forced herself to use her voice a few times a day, simply to prevent herself from forgetting how.

Spooning up the heavily sweetened peaches, she wondered about the previous night. As she drifted off to sleep, she woke with a start, sure that there was someone else in the room. She had screwed the light bulb back into the fixture near her bed, to find that she had illuminated the walking corpse of John Druitt, approaching her with decomposing hands outstretched.

Uncharacteristically, she had frozen, cowered in the bed, whimpering.

"You thought you could be rid of me that easily, did you, Helen?" the corpse rasped. He lunged at her, and she jumped backward, striking her head sharply against the wall. The apparition disappeared.

It was over an hour before Helen could force herself out of bed to check on the well wrapped body she had dragged into the bathroom and somehow forced into the tub all those days ago. The smell of decomposing flesh leaked through the plastic lined fabric of the shower curtain she had used to wrap him in.

It wasn't the first time she had hallucinated since being trapped down here. She knew that the combination of poor diet, lack of sleep, lack of stimulation and the noxious gasses rising from the body were causing the visions. She had seen Daniel, even spoken to him, before he vanished when she reached out for him. Ashley and Will had made an appearance, seemingly searching the room for her but unable to see her. Tesla and Watson had turned up, "tsked" over John's body and disappeared.

After she ate, Helen worked her way through a serious of mental challenges she had created years ago as part of a test for "genius" abnormals. She forced herself to work through them step by step, even working on variations for some of the more elaborate math problems. Then she reviewed past cases, cases where people had gotten hurt or abnormals had escaped, replaying them in her mind, looking for the flaws, things that could have been done differently.

Her second meal of the day consisted of a tin of pears and a can of cocktail "weenies."

Sighing, Helen took the spoon and the empty tins into the washroom and was rinsing them when she heard an unfamiliar noise. She froze, dropping into a crouch, as three figures appeared in the middle of the room. They were wearing desert camouflage and carrying P-90s, American issue military weapons. All three of them had breathing apparatus strapped to their faces and large oxygen tanks on their backs.

"We're safe, Hammond," an unfamiliar male voice with a Southern twinge. "We'll report in a bit."

"Copy that, Team Alpha."

Helen frowned. This was the first time her hallucinations had included strangers.

One of the figures lifted some kind of device to its face. "Air is safe to breathe."

Daniel? That sounded like Daniel's voice. Helen slumped a bit. Clearly her visions were back on track.

Her guess that it was Daniel in the room was confirmed when he lifted off the breathing unit and settled a baseball cap on his head, looking around the dim room. The two others removed their masks as well, revealing Ashley and a man Helen didn't recognize.

"Whew! Does anyone else smell that?" he exclaimed, confirming that he was the source of the Southern accent.

"Decomp," Ashley said flatly. She looked terrible, Helen thought. Hair lank, black circles under her eyes. She was swamped in the fatigues. She had always been small, but somehow she seemed even smaller now.

Daniel said nothing, Helen noticed from her position in the darkened bathroom, but his jaw tightened as he stared around him.

"All right, team," said the Southern accent. "Fan out and conduct a search."

Daniel and Ashley both looked at him. "Cam, it's a pretty small room. There isn't much 'fanning out' to be done."

The man Daniel had identified as Cam shrugged, looking somewhat shamefaced. "Okay, okay. Ashley, you check the bed area. Daniel, you check over there," he waved vaguely in the direction of the bathroom. "I'll….um….I'll check out the shelving."

Ashley and Daniel exchanged glances and shrugged. "Got it," Ashley said. She stalked over to the bed and began pulling it apart.

Daniel proceeded more cautiously toward the dark doorway in front of him. He flicked on the light mounted on his weapon. Helen flinched away from it from her position behind the sink, a movement Daniel apparently noticed, for he focused the light, and the weapon, directly on her.

"Oh my God," he whispered, bringing the Southern man and Ashley to his side. "Helen?"

"Mom?" Ashley added.

Daniel dropped into a crouch to match Helen's, waving the stranger back and motioning for Ashley to move behind him.

"Helen, its Daniel. Daniel and Ashley. We've come to get you."

Helen looked from one to another, to the curious face of the strange man hovering just outside the doorway. "You aren't real," she muttered. She felt tears on her face as she desperately wished they were.

"What? Mom, it's me!" Ashley burst out, making a movement towards her. Helen shrank back and Daniel held up his arm to stop the younger woman. Helen could almost see him thinking.

"Helen, I'm sure you have been hallucinating, seeing all sorts of strange things. I know it's hard to tell fantasy from reality after that happens. But I need you to think with me for a few minutes, okay?"

Helen nodded mutely. If that kept her from being alone for a few minutes, it was worthy of her attention.

Daniel handed his weapon to Ashley and sat down on the floor in the doorway. The other man dropped a lit flashlight on the floor at Daniel's side, illuminating the room slightly. "Helen, I assume that you have seen Ashley and me in your visions? And maybe Will or Henry, other people that you know?"

She nodded again.

Daniel waved behind him and the strange man moved forward, arms resting on top of his P-90.

"Helen, you've near seen him before, have you?"

"No," she said weakly.

"This is Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell of the United States Air Force. He's a friend of mine, we work together, and he came with to help get you out of here. You haven't hallucinated any strangers before, have you?"

"No." Her voice was a little stronger, she noticed.

"Ma'am, pleasure to meet you," Cam said, smiling and giving her a jaunty wave with one hand. "Love to get to know you better once we get outta here."

At Daniel's gesture, he backed away, still smiling.

"And however you hallucinated about me, I'm sure it wasn't dressed in fatigues and carrying that," Daniel continued, waving at the gun Ashley was holding.

"No, that's true." Helen was thinking now. Hallucinations tended to be either completely fantastical or included elements of a person's reality. Thus far, she had experienced only familiar elements, although John's walking corpse was definitely fantastical. She really couldn't qualify Daniel's appearance in military gear that way though.

"Helen, I'm not a hallucination. Ashley and Cam aren't hallucinations either. We're real, we're here, and we're ready to get you out of here whenever you want to leave."

Helen rose from her position behind the sink, staring at Daniel, who remained seated on the floor. He slowly stood up as she approached him. She reached out her hand, touching his face and giving a slight gasp when she actually touched flesh and he didn't vanish. Stepping past him, a hand on his shoulder, she grasped Ashley's hand and found herself engulfed in a hug with her daughter, the weapon slung over her chest digging uncomfortably into both of them.

Her face buried in Ashley's shoulder, she heard Cam speaking.

"Hammond, this is Mitchell, we are ready for retrieval with one extra passenger. Please confirm."

"Confirmed, Colonel Mitchell. Four to return to the Hammond. Please ensure the new passenger is tagged."

"Excuse me, ma'am," said the younger man. She unfolded herself from her hug with Ashley, but found herself holding both Ashley and Daniel tightly by the hands. Cameron clipped something to the deteriorating sleeve of her blouse. "You're going to need that."

Helen looked at it curiously.

"Hang on, Helen; we're going to be taking a little ride." Daniel smiled at her, raising her hand to his lips and pressing a kiss on it.

Helen glanced around the room that had been her prison and smiled. "I'm ready whenever you are, Daniel."

"Hammond, this is Mitchell, four to beam up." Daniel glared at him, and Mitchell shrugged. "What, like you haven't always wanted to say it?"

The room vanished before Helen's eyes and she materialized in what seemed to be the bridge of some kind of futuristic ship, facing a blonde woman wearing her face.

What she did next caused a great deal of panic, but seemed perfectly reasonable at the time.

She fainted.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Daniel shifted his weight in the chair. When the military had equipped the General George Hammond, the infirmary had received all of the latest medical technology and every luxury, with the exception of the hard, gray plastic guest chairs. They were theoretically molded to the shape of a human rear end. Daniel's rear did not agree.

Helen lay silent in the hospital bed, almost as pale as the white cotton sheets. An IV stabbed into the back of her hand, liquid dripping slowly into it. A corpsman came over, took Helen's pulse, marked something on a chart, smiled absently at Daniel and walked away.

The archeologist sighed. It had been three hours since he, Ashley, Cam and Helen had returned to the Hammond. And three hours since Helen had passed out, hitting the deck with a clang that had rattled Daniel's teeth. Ashley had been pulled down with her when she fell, but suffered nothing worse than a bruised elbow. She was in the gymnasium of the ship right now, with Cam, kick boxing the heavy bag into submission. She needed some outlet for her worry.

The doctor onboard had diagnosed Helen with mild malnutrition and severe exhaustion. The rescue and, Daniel thought guiltily, the face-to-face meeting with her doppelganger, had been too much for the already traumatized woman.

Daniel had spent a lot of time at the Sanctuary thinking. He had spent his week of leave with Helen, and that had been a blissful, relaxed time, other than getting trapped in a cave and then attacked by a savage abnormal. But this extended period of separation from work left him aimless and worrying. He wondered about what he was doing with his life. Wondered why he was still working for Stargate Command after his original team had broken up and gone its separate ways. Was he really accomplishing anything? Or was staying in Colorado, sticking with the life he knew, no matter how dangerous, simply easier than leaving? He didn't know, but the fact that the question was even occurring to him made him worry even more.

While they waited for Sam and her ship to return from a mission looking for a large research team that had apparently vanished into thin air after stepping through a Stargate with an extra chevron, Cam and Daniel had tried other routes to get into Afghanistan. Even with the help of Jack O'Neill and General Landry, they had no luck in getting permission to cross the border. They had discussed, late into the night, trying to sneak into the country, but given that the location in the books appeared to be almost dead center of the nation, there was no way they were going to be able to sneak the whole way.

The Hammond, with its ability to beam them both into and out of the chambers, was clearly their best option. As a result of the delay, Daniel had spent 15 days with a stressed group of people who were growing tenser by the minute.

On day eight of their stay, the restless Cam accompanied Ashley on her hunt for a folding man.

"How hard can it be?" Cam had asked Daniel. "I mean, seriously. It's not like we're looking at the Ori here."

"Just….be careful, okay?" Daniel had said.

"Piece of cake," Cam had said, shouldering the weapon Ashley handed him. Ashley rolled her eyes at Daniel behind Cam's back as they walked away.

While they were gone, Daniel and Will had gone through Druitt's room with a fine toothed comb, packing up his belongings at the same time. It was Will who found the photo albums under the bed. The first was stuffed with copies of old newspaper clippings about Jack the Ripper, research articles about the hunt for the murderer and even poems and short stories written about the madman. They flipped through it slowly together, sitting next to each other on the bed.

The second album was even more disturbing. It was filled with pictures of Helen. Helen in different eras, with different hair colors, walking, riding horses, running, driving. Then, toward the back, Helen in various stages of undress, and naked. Some she had obviously posed for, staring at the camera with a blatantly sexual smile, or peeking demurely over her shoulder. Others were clearly taken unawares, from a telescopic lens, Daniel thought. He had seen enough surveillance pictures to identify what they were.

Will, holding the album, slammed it shut, flushing red. He handed the album to Daniel, who tucked it away in the box of items that belonged to the Sanctuary and would hopefully be given back to Helen once she returned.

They all got more and more edgy as the days crawled by, some with no communication with anyone in the military, which the exception of General Landry, who checked in every day to find out when the hell his lead team would be returning.

Even the normally oblivious Cam had been affected by the tension, but responded in his normal manner, by goading other people.

"So, Ashley, tell me about how you and Will ended up together," he began at the dinner table on the 13th night as Henry was carrying in a platter of bread. There was a pause, during which Ashley's mouth dropped open, Will turned red and Henry came to such an abrupt stop that the food slid off the platter on to the floor.

"Cam! What the hell?" Daniel bellowed.

"Seriously, Jackson, it's clear that that the two of them are getting it on. And why not, I mean, like grandma always said, you gotta take your fun where you find it," Cam smirked, catching Henry's eye and holding it. "Not like she's gonna find it anywhere else around here."

"Cam, shut the hell up," Daniel growled, standing, but it was too late. With a louder, much more feral growl, Henry launched himself at Cam, morphing into his werewolf form at the same time, clothes tearing and shredding as he changed. Dishes scattered from the table, smashing into the walls. The two of them tumbled over backwards; the chair Cam was sitting in being pulverized beneath them.

Daniel, Will and Ashley shook off their shock, Ashley throwing herself on the back of the werewolf Henry, wrapping her arms around him, mouth pressed to his ear. Will and Daniel tried to drag Cam out from under the crazed technician as Ashley whispered in Henry's ear, arms locked around his neck.

Suddenly, Henry transformed back into himself, naked, one hand on Cam's throat, the other raised to slash the colonel's face. He turned his body around, facing Ashley, and kissed her like his life depended on it. Daniel and Will pulled Cam away and backed out of the room, trying not to watch as Henry ripped Ashley's blouse open, hoisting her up onto the table.

"Nice, Cam. Really nice," Daniel said as Will shut the door behind them. Daniel was supporting Cam, the officer clutching his ribs.

Cam grimaced. "Well, it worked didn't it? I just didn't think the response would be quite that extreme."

Will and Daniel came to a halt, exchanging glances over Cam's head. "You did that on purpose?" Will asked. A long clearly male moan followed by Ashley's voice screaming "Holy sweet Jesus!" drove them away from the dining room door at a more rapid pace.

"Damnit Cam, you're an idiot," Daniel said. "If this is how you're amusing yourself, I think you need to get the hell out of here."

It was the next day, as Cam was shouldering his bag to leave, that they had received the call from the Hammond that the ship was back and available to transport them to Afghanistan.

What followed was the fastest briefing of non-military personnel about the Stargate, aliens and space travel Daniel had ever conducted. He had managed to get permission for Ashley to accompany them, but Will and Henry had to stay behind. Will because it was a military operation and he hadn't the training, and Henry because Cam was frankly terrified of him.

Daniel looked again at the sleeping Helen, taking her limp hand in his and squeezing it gently. They had been beamed into four underground complexes in various states of disrepair before finally finding Helen. He couldn't describe the terror he had felt when he realized they had found the correct place, only to smell the reek of decomposing flesh. He was sure he had lost her. Had lost another woman he loved.

Standing up to stretch his tired legs, he leaned over and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"Come back to me, Helen. Please," he whispered.

"Daniel, how are you doing?" asked Sam's even toned voice behind him. Daniel turned slowly to face his friend. Sam walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, looking down on her unconscious double. "The resemblance really is uncanny," she added, shrugging uncomfortably. She turned to face Daniel, pulling him away from Helen's bed.

"Yeah."

"We got a lead on the missing team. Cam has been ordered to come with us. We can drop you and…Ashley, is it? We can drop the three of you off at the complex where we picked you up, but unfortunately we can't wait for your friend to wake up."

"No need to wait," rasped a voice behind them. Daniel turned around to see Helen slowly blinking at him. He launched himself past Sam towards Helen, stumbling to his knees next to her bed and grabbing her hand in both of his, pressing his lips to her palm. Sam seemed to realize that he wasn't in any condition to explain anything and stepped forward.

"Dr. Helen Magnus, I'm Colonel Samantha Carter, you're on board the General George Hammond, in orbit around the planet Earth."

"In…orbit?" Helen managed. She looked avidly at Sam, and the two women smiled at each other.

"I think Daniel probably has a lot to explain to you once you get back to your…Sanctuary, isn't it? Unfortunately, we need to get you back right now. We've got another mission."

Helen smile widened as she looked over Sam's shoulder and the colonel turned to see Ashley coming up behind her. Daniel, who had recovered his composure, and Ashley helped Helen to rise from the bed. She discovered that she was wearing a black t-shirt and black yoga pants. She looked curiously at Sam.

"We're the same size," Sam said, smiling again. She pressed a button on the wall next to her. "Bridge, three to be returned to the original pickup point." She handed transport beacons to the travelers and watched them clip them on. "Daniel, I'll catch you later. Dr. Magnus, Ashley, it's been a pleasure to meet you. Bridge, three to transport."

Helen watcher her doppelganger vanish and the courtyard of the Sanctuary materialize around her.

"Home sweet home," Ashley said, hugging her mom briefly. Helen looked over Ashley's shoulder at Daniel, who was looking at the ground as if it was the most fascinating stonework he had ever seen.

"It's good to be home," Helen said slowly. She turned to see Will, Henry and the big guy heading down the steps at top speed. And she couldn't help but notice the way Henry draped his arm over Ashley's shoulders, and the way her daughter's face lit up when it happened. Maybe she had been gone longer than she thought, she mused.

"Well, as the doctor here," Will began, smiling at her, "I suggest a long hot bath, a home cooked family meal, and then a good night's sleep."

"That all sounds lovely, Will, thank you," she turned to look at Daniel. "But I think Daniel and I need to talk as well."

Daniel's eyes came up, clearly worried. She held her hand out to him and he took it. "Why don't you walk me to my room, Dr. Jackson?" she said, smiling softly.

"Of course, Helen, I'd be glad to."

Hand in hand, they headed up the steps and into the Sanctuary, followed by the rest of the team, all chattering happily about her rescue.

_A/N: I pulled in some of the information that's been released about the new Stargate: Universe, that's what the Hammond's mission is all about. _

_One more chapter to go, and maybe an Epilogue. _

_Reviews make the world go round! :)_


	9. Chapter 8

_A/N: Fair warning: This chapter is rated a high T, but not quite an M. _

Walking to her room with Daniel, Helen forced herself to relax her grip on his hand. She knew she was safe at home, had actually never been so happy to see the dim hallways of The Sanctuary, but she still felt a sense of unease.

She felt Daniel squeeze her hand and glanced over at him with a small smile. She had truly never thought to see him again.

She pushed open the door of her room and smiled involuntarily at the familiar surroundings. Her robe was laid out on the bed, the fireplace lit. It was all as comfortable and as comforting as she remembered.

"We need to talk, Helen," Daniel said, dropping her hand. She turned to him.

"You're right, we do. You obviously have some interesting tales to tell me," she turned away, pulling the t-shirt over her head and dropping it on the bed, walking toward the bathroom. "Can you tell me while I'm in the tub, please? I'm dying to get clean."

Topless, she looked over her shoulder to see Daniel staring at her. She pulled out the elastic that was holding her hair up so that it flowed loose over her naked back. Daniel made a noise deep in his throat that Helen interpreted correctly as desire. She caught his eyes, watching him as she lowered the pants to stand naked before him.

Daniel crossed to her in two large strides, his hands gripping her waist, pulling her back against him and making no effort to hide his desire. As much as she had wanted him the second before, Helen felt a brief shiver of panic run through her and stiffened involuntarily. Daniel released her immediately and stepped back.

"God, Helen, I'm sorry," he said. "Did he…did Druitt…?"

Helen shook her head slowly. "Not as sorry as I am Daniel. John tried to force himself on me, but I…I killed him before he could," she said. She felt tears welling in her eyes and didn't bother to hide them. Daniel snatched up the robe that had been lying across her bed and wrapped her in it, then scooped her into his arms and settled in the large armchair in the corner with her cradled in his lap.

She cried. She cried so hard she thought she was going to choke as the pain poured out of her. She cried as she had never cried before in her long life.

The fear, the guilt for killing her first love, her daughter's father – no matter how necessary it had been – the rage, the sheer certainty that she was going to die a slow, agonizing death from starvation alone in the dark. All of it welled to the surface and poured out of her in a flood of tears.

Through it all, she could feel Daniel's hands holding her, smoothing her hair from her face, securing her tightly against him. His deep voice murmured reassurances, words of love, promises never to leave her alone again.

She didn't realize that he was crying as well until she came back into herself enough to feel that the top of her head was wet with his tears. She raised her head from his chest, wiping tremulous fingers across his face, tracing the tearstains.

"I was so afraid, Helen," Daniel said. "I was so afraid that I had lost you forever."

A cocky answer hovered on her tongue, but, instead, she reached up and pulled his mouth down to hers, kissing him gently. His hands tightened reflexively on her waist, but he was clearly holding back, allowing her to take the lead.

They kissed lightly for several minutes, then Helen pulled back from him. He left her go instantly, so quickly that she almost toppled onto the floor and had to clutch at his forearms for balance.

"I think I really need that bath now," she said quietly. He lifted her off his lap and set her feet on the floor, standing before her.

"Let me start it for you," he said, looking down into her eyes. "The jasmine?"

"Please."

Daniel stepped around her and disappeared into the bathroom, and she heard water running into the oversized tub. Helen sat down on the chair, resting her chin on her knees and staring at nothing.

The world, her world, which had seemed so ordered and understandable a few weeks before, now seemed strange, foreign. She may have studied abnormals and hunted mythical creatures in catacombs and any other number of odd things, but it was her life and she understood it. Right now, she understood very little.

Daniel reappeared in the doorway. "I think its ready now, Helen," he said.

She turned her head slowly to face him, then rose to her feet and walked to the bathroom silently. She moved past him, dropping the robe to the ground and stepping into the jasmine scented water.

"I'll just leave you alone, then," Daniel said in a choked voice.

Helen sat up with a splash as he backed out of the room, pulling the door shut. "No!" she heard herself shriek.

Daniel was back in the room like a shot, ignoring the water she had splashed to the floor when she sat up as he squatted next to the tub, carefully keeping his eyes on her face.

"Please don't leave me," Helen managed. She flushed in humiliation at having to ask it. "Please don't leave me alone."

"I'm sorry, Helen, I should have thought of that," Daniel said, either ignoring or not seeing her embarrassment. He pulled the stool from her vanity over next to the tub and settled onto it, turned slightly away from her.

They sat in silence for a while, Helen soaking in the hot water, feeling some of her tension melting away, Daniel leaned back against the wall, his eyes closed.

"Tell me about the spaceship, Daniel," Helen said eventually. Her eyes were closed, but she felt Daniel shift uneasily on the stool.

"I work for the United States Air Force in what's called the Stargate Program," he began. After a few minutes, Helen found herself sitting up in the tub and staring at him in fascination. His eyes were closed and there was a tension line above his nose as his told the tale of alien planets, intergalactic villains, and his lost wife, Sha're. He trailed off after describing how they had rescued Helen from her underground prison.

"So Colonel Carter is the 'Sam' who was part of the team you served with?" Helen asked. "And the stranger who was with you?"

"Cameron Mitchell. He's the team leader now." Daniel's eyes opened and he looked down at her. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before, Helen. The security levels involved….I felt terrible that you had shared so much with me and I couldn't tell you the truth."

Helen laid a wet hand on his knee, the conversation too intense for either to notice the water soaking through his pants.

"Daniel, darling, I told you the secrets of the Sanctuary because they were my secrets to tell. The secrets you kept were not your own. You had no options," she said. She squeezed his knee when he shook his head, looking away from her. "You had no choice, Daniel. I know the military," she smiled wryly. "Better than I would like to admit. I know that secrets are stock in trade. Please, don't do this to yourself. I'm just glad you had the connections to bring me home. Without those, I would still be there. Will, Ashley and Henry would not have been able to get me out of these, even if they could have found me."

Daniel nodded slowly, his face lightning a bit. The look on his face turned to awe as she rose from the tub, water sliding off her body. He reached out to touch her, but stopped, dragging his eyes away from her naked body.

Helen took his hand and brought it to her bare breast, eyes fluttering shut when he touched it, stroking his thumb across the nipple.

She gasped when he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, sweeping the covers off in one gesture.

"Tell me if you want me to stop," Daniel said, laying her down gently on the bed, yanking his t-shirt over his head.

"I will," Helen said. She reached for him, pulling him down to her, hands sliding over his bare chest. "But I don't think I will ever want you to stop."

*************************************************************************************

They lay side-by-side some time later, only their hands touching. Daniel lay on his stomach, Helen on her back, faces turned towards each other.

"God I missed you," Daniel managed.

"I got that impression," Helen said, chuckling.

Daniel smiled the grin that she loved and he raised his head up enough to kiss her firmly. Helen smiled against his lips. They got lost in the kiss for a while, finally pulling apart when oxygen became an issue.

He reached out and pulled her against him, her head resting on his bare chest, leg hooked over his waist. They had been lying that way for a while when Daniel spoke, his voice rumbling under her ear.

"I've been thinking of leaving the Stargate program," he said, smoothing his hand over her hair.

Helen, who had been giving his chest light kisses, stilled. "Really? And what would you do if you left?" she asked, not looking at him.

"I wondered if you could use a slightly rumpled linguist/archeologist, who just so happens to know his way around a gun," he said calmly, but Helen could feel his tension under her hands. She turned her head so that her chin rested on his chest and looked up at him. He craned his chin downward so that their eyes met.

"Daniel, I'm not sure you understand completely what you are asking," Helen started slowly. "I age very slowly. Very slowly. I have kept my intimate relationships separate from my life for that reason. You will get old, and die, and I will…well, I will do neither."

Daniel blinked at her. "I don't feel very separate from your life at the moment, Helen," he said, gesturing around the room.

Helen laughed, sitting up and gathering a sheet around her, ignoring Daniel's playful attempt to snatch the sheet. "You're right, Daniel, I have not kept you separate. I have allowed you to…penetrate…deeper into my life than any man since John Druitt."

Daniel groaned at the wordplay.

Helen's face turned serious. "I fell in love with you, Daniel, something I had vowed not to do again. To be completely truthful, I fear that bringing you further into my world could devastate both of us. You when I don't grow old in concert with you, and me when you grow old and leave me."

Daniel sat up as well, pulling a corner of her sheet over his lap to cover his nudity. His face was thoughtful as he settled back against the headboard. "So you are denying yourself the chance for happiness today for fear of something that may happen decades from now? Helen, this experience has taught me that there is no way to predict what will happen tomorrow."

Helen looked into his blue eyes, shining with love for her, unshadowed by the anger and evil that had chilled John's silver-blue eyes.

"Are you willing to work under me?" Helen asked. She laughed when he nodded vigorously, pulling her over on top of him to straddle his waist. She slapped his shoulder. "I'm serious, Daniel, our relationship in this room doesn't mean that I'm not in charge. I lead the Sanctuary, and you will have to be willing to follow."

She couldn't resist the temptation and rocked her hips against his, grinning when he closed his eyes briefly, then opened them to bore deep into hers, dark with desire.

"Helen, I have been working for the military for over a decade. I have learned to follow orders in emergencies," he said. He lifted one hand from her hip and held it up. "However, I have never learned to follow orders blindly or without question if I disagree with them. I ask questions, I debate, I consider different angles. It used to drive Jack – General O'Neill – completely crazy." He groaned then. "And I never want to discuss Jack in bed again. It's too weird."

Helen leaned forward to kiss him passionately, then settled her head against his shoulder. "All right, Daniel, if Stargate Command will let you go, I invite you to join the Sanctuary."

Daniel sighed deeply, kissing her neck, then sliding down from the headboard with her lying against him. "Why don't you practice giving me orders now, Dr. Magnus? To make sure I can work under you with no problems."

Helen chuckled, then leaned forward and began whispering commands in his ear, laughing outright when he began to enthusiastically carry them out.

She had no idea if she and Daniel could be lovers and work together. But she supposed it would be fun to find out.

FIN

_A/N: This was a hard chapter to write, I'm not sure why. This time the muse required fancy coffee, dark chocolate AND ice cream. I'm thinking there's another story to be had on Helen and Daniel learning to work together. We'll see. Let me know if you agree!_


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